Thursday, February 28, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #69

13 Things About Dane Bramage
13 TV Shows I would Like to Be a Character On.

Ever wanted to be one of the "Friends"? Me neither they were weird. But there were plenty other shows that I watched and thought, "Hey it would be cool to be a character on that show." So here are 13 shows that I would like to have been a character on.

Star Trek Man ever since I was a kid I wanted to boldly go where no man had gone before. I could have been a bridge officer. I quickly learned that I didn't want to wear a red shirt on that ship though.

The Name of The Game I imagined myself working for Gene Barry as the editor/reporter of his only Black magazine. These days though I think reporters rarely investigate beyond their hotels.

Search Hi tech spy/anti-terrorist organization. I would have liked to be a base operative working with Burgess Meredith

Space 1999 I would have liked to been on Moon Base Alpha when it took off and started exploring the galaxy.

Dr. Who How cool would it be to go tooling around the time-space continuum with Tom Baker or Sylvester McCoy? The current Doctor isn't bad but his writers can get preachy and anti-American at times.

UFO I know this is the third British Sci-Fi show in a row but they did have some good ones. I thought it would be great to be part of a super secret defense force protecting the Earth from alien invaders. I think I would be an interceptor pilot blowing UFOs out of space before they reach Earth.

Hill Street Blues I thought it would be cool to be one of the men in blue of the Hill Street precinct. I don't do undercover well so I guess I would be a hard nosed, by-the-book detective.

Star Trek: Voyager I confess I had doubts about the show in the beginning but it grew on me. I wanted to be an officer who ultimately married the voluptuous and deadly Seven of Nine. She could assimilate me anytime.

TimeTrax I wanted to be a second cop sent to the past to recapture escaped felons from the future.

M*A*S*H You know they had a black doctor at the 4077th for the first episode(I guess they didn't feel comfortable calling him Spear-Chucker). I thought they needed one. Before Larry Linville left, I wanted to be a Black Winchester. Mad skills, sharp wit, high intellect, and class with a capital C. They must have thought the same way but made him white.

Northern Exposure I thought that after the neurotic jewish doctor left, a funky fresh black urban doctor could set up practice in Cicely.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer I was feeling too old to be one of the "Scooby Gang" but I could see myself as a militant watcher type of person. Special training and techno/arcane gadgets to fight evil darkness.

Starrgate Atlantis Taking up residence in the Pegasus galaxy as a member of the military team. Or sometimes I imagine my character as a resident alien fighting the good fight against the Wraith.

So is there a show you wanted to be part of?

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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #68

13 Things About Dane Bramage
13 More Answers to the 100 Questions Meme

Well I had an attack of lazyitis and Thursday snuck up on me again so I pulled out the old 100 Questions Meme. Here are the next 13 answers.

16. WHAT KIND OF HAIR/EYE COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX? I am not picky at this point in my life. I'd be happy that she had hair and eyes. I really have no preference but tend to shy away from unnatural colors, the greens, violets, oranges.

17. WOULD YOU RATHER BE SMART OR FUNNY? Fortunately I'm blessed with being both. :-) But if I had to lose one in an accident, I'd rather be smart than funny. The world is full of funny dummies.

18. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINKS? Java by the potload

19. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPING? Fungus. Although I do like sausage and anchovies too. YES ANCHOVIES!

20. IF YOU CAN EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE? A sub. Lots of cold cuts and cheese.

21. WHO IS THE LAST PERSON YOU MADE MAD? Probably Dave and it was after he made me mad. I don't think we are ever going to get past it. Shame too. 20 years of friendship down the crapper.

22. DO YOU SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE? No. I took French in school but when our regular French teacher left on maternity leave we got some pervert in who gave me the only "D" I ever received in my academic career. So when I got to high school I switched to Latin which is a written language.

23. WHAT WAS THE FIRST GIFT SOMEONE EVER GAVE YOU? How would I know? I am sure I was too young to remember.

24. DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE? Several someones. But if you mean am I dating anyone right now, the answer is no. Halle and Tyra aren't returning my calls and Condi issued that restraining order thing.

25. ARE YOU DOUBLE JOINTED? I wish.

26. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND? Anything that comes in XXXL. My jeans are of course Lardache.

27. WHAT'S YOUR DREAM CAR? I wanted to get a Grand Cherokee last year but it was not to be.

29. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF EXERCISE? I invented a low impact squat that anyone can do anywhere at anytime. In fact I did about a hundred a few minutes ago. They're called "Diddly Squats".

Well there you have it. Another quick look at the twisted brain of Dane. Got a question? Leave it in the comments.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Headlines for Wednesday 2-20-2008

Fidel Castro Resigns As Cuba's President
Plans to sneak a boat and retire in Miami

Church Urges Hanky Panky Among Members
Also urges coveting and baring false witness as they promote Revised Commandments Day

Stolen Stash of Stuffing Secured
Drastic Dressing Drama is Developing

Colo. couple swindles Girl Scouts with fake bill
Girl Scout spokesman say "They sure looked like ducks

Blow-Up Doll Stands in for Groom
Usually it is the bride that's the blow up doll

Ohio Couples Have White (Castle) Wedding
Well White Castle is affiliated with Churches

Clinton Says Obama Relies on 'Words'
Whereas Clinton relies on wild hand gestures

Pregnant Woman Accused of Assault at Bar
Who would expect such behavior from a bar patron?

Star Trek release pushed back to 2009
Having problems boldly going where we've all been before

Underwear on the Face Didn't Fool Anyone
CSI identified suspect by skid marks

Technorati tag: Humor Headlines

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Castro Steps Down After Forever

Fidel Castro announced that he would step down as ruler of Cuba today. The aging communist seized power before I was born (I'm 48). So he has been in charge of Cuba forever as far as I'm concerned. I was reading an AP news piece and this tidbit stuck out:

Castro's supporters admired his ability to provide a high level of health care and education for citizens while remaining fully independent of the United States.

Well we can't have a dictator step down without some digs at the good ole U.S.A. I mean after all we need universal healthcare just like Cuba's. Nevermind that a U.S. system would have to cover 27 times the number of people Cuba's does. Cuba is a happy helthcare haven and model for the rest of the world to emmulate.

Doesn't it bother anybody that part of the price Cubans paid for their "high level of health care" is their freedom? Is living under the boot of a dictator a good trade off? Can anyone raised in this country answer authoritatively? (No I don't mean the poor liberals who equate Bush to Hitler or are deluded by some other moral equivalence).

Despite this end of an era moment, things are not likely to change. 81 year-old Fidel has groomed his kid brother, 76 year-old Raul to take his place. While he has hinted at reform, no one is holding their breath. And let's not forget The U.S. election. Clinton, Obama and McCain (whom AP has delcared the GOP nominee-in-waiting) have already called for release of political prisoners and are touting a possibly new Cuba to deal with. They feel the U.S. should srive to normalize relations. My man Huckabee had the best quote which also reflects my sentiment exactly:

Until Fidel Castro is dead, there can be no significant movement towards reform in Cuba," Huckabee said in a statement. "Raul Castro has proven that he's as much a tyrant and dictator as his brother Fidel. Simply providing more power to another dictator does nothing to promote freedom and democracy to the Cuban people."

Amen brother.

A Meme for Tuesday

Okay I have been tagged by Eve at AdamsWife's Weblog with this little meme. I am suppose to grab the nearest book of at least 123 pages and turn to page 123. The only problem is that the nearest book is a Microsoft course book on C#. I was using it to elevate my laptop to elbow height on the stand I was using. The reason it is a problem is that while there are many times 123 pages, each chapter starts back at page 1. So there are no actual page 123s and to determine what page is actually 123 would require stuff like math and that is too much work. So the next nearest book that fits the qualifications is Prayer-Asking and Receiving by Dr. John R. Rice. Then take three sentences starting with the fifth. The excerpt I'm supposed to post is as follows:

Think how many of our public prayers are indefinite, not asking anything of God and not getting anything! For example, the secretary of a preacher in an Illinois city not long ago told how the minister who employed her had already written out his public prayers for the next four months! So not in one of those prayers would the preacher be praying, “Heavenly Father, save my next-door neighbor who is here today.”

Dr. Rice is one of my Pastor's heroes and the book is dynamite. It was originally copyrighted in 1942 and is considered by many as the authoratative book on prayer. Our church bookstore got in a fresh shipment and I got a nice hardbound copy.

Now I am suppose to tag five people but I am offering a general self tag. If this meme appeals to you then feel free to be tagged. The meme instructions are here. If decide to play let me know in the comments.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Happy Washington's Birthday (repost)

I wrote this piece back in 2006 and thought I would relax this Washington's Birthday and repost it instead of doing something new.

It is a fact that there are fewer black conservatives than black liberals. Occasionally I find myself surrounded by people who under most circumstances would be rational thinking human beings despite the crimson hued area between their chin and shoulders. On one such occasion, such a person blurted out “I really hate how they took away George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s Birthdays and gave it to Martin Luther King”.  I was of course stunned. I know that the vast majority of whites in this country can not truly relate to the discrimination and hate that was targeted against blacks before civil rights movement of the sixties but come on, this statement was completely clueless. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have the hard facts to counter this man. I remember a time when we celebrated Washington’s and then Lincoln’s birthdays. Then we stopped. So I had to do some research into the situation. (I was very young at the time of these events so I had no hard dates.)  I discovered that the time we started celebrating President’s Day and the time MLK’s birthday became a holiday were over a decade apart.

First off there is no such thing as President’s Day. Richard Nixon’s executive order declared some holidays to be celebrated on Mondays regardless of when they fell. This was done in ‘68.  Washington’s Birthday was one of them. It is still called Washington’s Birthday according to the law books and was first celebrated in ‘71.  I also discovered that no one “took” Abe’s birthday. It was never a national holiday. It had been celebrated as a state holiday in many states.  Once the so called “President’s Day” was established, states stop celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday.

Martin Luther King’s Birthday was signed by Ronald Reagan in ’83, some 15 years after Washington’s Birthday was made a Monday holiday.  It was first celebrated in ’86 but not celebrated in all 50 states in until ’93.  So whoever they are, they sure took their sweet time about taking Abe’s day and giving it to Martin.

Just so we are clear, I have absolutely no doubts that much of what I am today I owe to men like Martin Luther King. But I have always wondered if his birthday should have been made a U.S. holiday. I felt this way even when I was a liberal democrat! I didn’t feel that way because of his accomplishments, nor did I buy into all the character assassination and talk about his womanizing and illicit affairs. I just wasn’t sure if the majority of Americans identify with his life enough to say he deserved his own holiday. It was 10 years after it became a holiday before all fifty states embraced it (remember the flak the Governor of Arizona caught because of it?) So I guess I have my answer.  Anyway that’s just my take on it.  Happy Washington’s Birthday!

Technorati tag: Holiday Opinion President's Day Washington's Birthday

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #67

13 Things About Dane Bramage
13 Romantic Tips

Well it's that time of year again. Valentines Day is upon us. If you are one of those last minute people like me, then you still haven't figured out what to do for the special person in your life. Don't fret. I have 13 things guaranteed to rekindle the flames of romance in your relationship.

Show her you care about her finances and give her one of those discount coupon books. I always remove the "buy one get one free" food deals so she doesn't sneak out to dinner with someone else

Always comment on her appearance. Tell her big flat feet are common on women who have attained her size

Nothing says romance like those three little words: Candied Brussels Sprouts

Never be a cheapskate on a date. Splurge and "Biggie Size" her meal.

Be considerate. Be sure to hide the holes you poke in the bottom of her chocolates to identify them. And never tell her which ones you spit out. Let it be a surprise.

She'll appreciate your frugalness when you cut pictures of the labels of designer perfumes out of her magazines. Then glue them onto the cheaper designer knock offs; besides no one can tell the difference in the smells.

Sharing a romantic meal at a fancy restaurant can really spark the passion. So order what you want and just let her have your salad. You weren't going to eat it and it's all she orders anyway.

Every woman appreciates the gift of cosmetics in bulk. Don't forget the beauty trowel.

Reinforce the appreciation you have for the hours of work she puts in around the house by staying home and watching the game.

Belching very loudly after a meal in a public place only affirms the level of comfort you feel with your special someone.

Every woman loves receiving battery chargers and jumper cables especially just before your big surprise evening at the Car and Boat Show

Women love it when you get frisky so chase her around the house with the socks you just peeled off after a twelve hour shift.

Women love the gift of furniture. Invest in a comfortable sofa. You never know when it will be your bed for the night.

There you have it. 13 sure fire ways to start a fire of passion. Did I mention that I've always been single? You don't seem surprised by that. If you have a sure fire romantic tip, leave it in the comments

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Quick Thoughts

Writer Strike

The writer's strike is over. My feelings... Was there a writer's strike? I didn't miss them. I think the Discovery Channel probably made some great gains in viewership over the last 100 days. I watched a lot of Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs. Everybody is glad that it is resolved in time to save the Oscars. Methinks the writers were waiting for that. Hollywood is not about to forego patting itself on the back. They have to show the world how important they really are and after all they can't do it unscripted.

Berkeley Brouhaha

Personaly I think anyone who sides with Code Pink is a few red bricks short of a complete Lego set. But the city council attacks the Marines and calls them unwanted and intruders. THEN when people threaten to have federal funds witheld they change their tune. Oh they don't apologize but they claim now that they were merely stating their displeasure with the war and not the Marines. "We support the troops but not the war!" Yeah right. So now they have voted not to send their original dispicable letter and to send one with calmer anti-war not anti-Marine language. What gets me is that they had to go through a marathon overnight council meeting to reach that point. How liberal does your leadership have to be that it takes all night to decide that attacking the Marines was a bad thing?

Amy Winehouse

5 out of 6 grammys. That is quite an accomplishment. I can't help but wonder about the wisdom in promoting a woman who's biggest hit has to do with rehab where she is currently (and reluctantly) going through treament. Her drug issues are what kept her from even coming to the U.S. to get her awards. Also if the titles of some of her songs are any indication, she has quite a foul mouth. I'd rather the kids listen to Hanna Montanna.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Just Ranting

Well I guess the big news out of the Potomac Primaries is that Hillary is now trailing Barack in delegates. Sweet! People are falling all over themselves to endorse Obama, even former Clinton campaigners. Not that I would vote for either of them. It is just fun watching the drama.

On the GOP side of things, since Romney dropped out, McCain is pretty much running away with the nomination race. His "camp" has called for Huckabee to drop out. Interestingly enough his "camp" hasn't said a word to basement dwelling Ron Paul.

I had decided to start pulling for Mike Huckabee even before the primaries. Why? Because I have too many liberal friends. You see I was at a social gathering Saturday night and most of the guests were liberal. Not quite moonbat caliber but bleeding heart intellectual elitists none the less. And as things have it the conversation turned to politics. Hilary this and Obama that. They didn’t have anything bad to say about McCain which scared me to death but they unanimously declared Mike Huckabee a religious fanatic. This shocked me because as Baptists go, Huckabee is even to the left of me. Oh they weren’t against religion per se, just fanatics and I guess if you quote the Bible and are vocal Pro-life you are a fanatic. I wonder how they feel about me going door to door telling people about Jesus. If Huckbee's a fanatic, then I'm a total nut job.

According to them the world’s problems are caused by religious fanatics. Not one of them mentioned Islam though, the fanatics that concerned them are American Christian Conservatives. You know, those slow thinking superstitious don’t-believe-in-evolution Christians. And apparently Mike Huckabee embodies all that is evil about Christianity and can’t be allowed to be President under any circumstances.

Wow. They had less objection to a Mormon running for POTUS that they have for a Baptist. Since I was not committed to McCain anyway I think it is time to start rooting for the underdog. He is far more conservative than McCain AND he has the added power to scare the hell out of liberals. Go Mike.

Friday, February 08, 2008

All Searches Lead To Dane Bramage

#2

Well I thought it was about time for another installment of ASLTDB. What's interesting is that some of the old standbys are here and some new ones too. The search string is in bold white and the post text it found is in light blue.

haunted stories in mantua ohio
Ohioans have the ability to spell words like Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas. They can properly pronounce the name of Portage County town Mantua
Ah My Thursday 13 on Fun Facts About Ohio. And BTW it's man' oo way

"Merry Christmas" to Danes Merry Christmas ACLU
There were quite a few searchers looking for Danes and Merry Christmas. I hope they weren't too disappointed whenI posted about the Christmas card campaign aimed at the ACLU.

when is booker t washington's birthday chrys over at Pettifog Jots and Tittles reminded me that yesterday was Booker T. Washington's Birthday. But it was Nightfighter at My Right Mind that came up with an incredible quote:
There were several searches for this. I mentioned Booker T. Washington' birthday which is April 5th in a 2006 post. I guess people are asking because it is close to George Washington's birthday and they are confused.

The Empire Wants You!
No matter when I check the search results, this picture I took at Gen Con Indy in 2005 always brings traffic. This and the Lego version of Mos Eisly Spaceport.

star wars valentine Something Awful:A Very Star Wars Valentines
It's that time of year and people are looking for that very special Valentine sentiment.

Now And Again Opening titles/theme (both versions)

This is the opening theme song to the CBS TV show "Now and Again". The strange part is I'm listed at YouTube as linking to the video and the page is in Japanese. I am not sure how that works.

At least this time I didn't find the "Naked Nuns" string that always brings people here. Maybe next time.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #66

13 Things About Dane Bramage
13 Movie Titles/Theme Songs

While sitting in the cafeteria the other day I heard an old Supremes tune. It was "The Happening". Wasn't that a movie? I thought to myself. "Well it's certainly an idea for Thursday Thirteen" I added. Some of these songs was more memorable than their movies. Some were monster hits to blockbusters. So here are 13 songs that are movie titles.

The Happening The song was by The Supremes and Anthony Quinn did the 1967 film.

To Sir With Love Lulu had a hit but so did Sidney Portier in the film also from 1967

The Way We Were Babs and Redford did a film in 1973 that I can't remember but that song will never die.

Shaft Richard Roundtree portrays the bad mother shut-yo-mouth in this 1972 film directed by Gordon Parks. Issac Hayes did the monster hit theme song.

You Light Up My Life The song won an Oscar. The movie had the song in it which is the best you can say about it. I vaguely remember Didi Conn in this 1977 snoozer.

Purple Rain Prince or whatever he's known as or formerly known as, made a couple films. This one from 1984 didn't suck. And while it wasn't as ubiquitous as "When Dove's Cry", "Purple Rain" got a lot of air play.

Fame The 1980 Award winning movie spawned a TV show and both had the same popular theme song.

Pet Sematary A story by Stephen King made into the 1989 film complete with a theme song by the Ramones.

Xanadu You would think a musical with Gene Kelly would be awesome. This 1980 film not so much. Co-star Olivia Newton-John's theme was a nice little ditty.

Superfly This 1972 film was blaxploitation at it's best. Shaft's Gordon Parks directed this film too. The great Curtis Mayfield made his solo career with the soundtrack to this film. I still know the words to "Superfly" and "Freddie's Dead". I can't find any hard facts but allegedly, the soundtrack out grossed the film.

New York, New York Minelli and De Niro starred in this 1977 film. And while none of the versions from the film itself pop into mind, everyone knows that Frank Sinatra took possession of this song and is associated with it to this day.

Footloose 1984 film with that Kevin Bacon guy that everybody is related to in seven degrees. Kenny Loggins does the theme song honors. A body double did the dancing.

Grease A 1978 film of a play or something like that. Olivia Neutron-Bomb and John Travolta star. Frankie Valli sings.

I didn't list any Bond Themes because there are so many and my last Thursday Thirteen was Bond related. But if you have a another favorite list it in the comments.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Quick Thoughts

The Election

I was sad to see John Edwards drop put of the race. No, I don't think he had any chance of winning nor do I think that anything he stands for is of any value. I liked him in the race because he was cute and cuddly and people who like that sort of thing in politics would have voted for him. Every vote for him was a vote NOT for Hilary.

Dennis Kucinich is quickly (but far too late) becoming a non-entity. I saw a campaign ad for his congressional opponent which took Dennis the Menace to task for his absenteeism in congress. DK has a hard re-election fight ahead.

On the republican side Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani have exited the arena. So much for star power. Sure both men had real political credentials but I don't think they were banking on those to get the nomination.

Now I am really in a bind. It looks like McCain may get the nomination. Romney's still a contender but I do not like either of them. It will be interesting to see the results of Super Tuesday.

The Super Bowl

Who was playing anyway? Seriously. I am so out of touch with football I didn't know who was playing until somebody mentioned it Sunday night. I'm sure the Patriots' heartache was compounded by everything they lost in the last couple minutes of the game. C'est la vie. I am in the middle of watching all the Super bowl commercials on the web though. I never miss them (except when they originally air that is.)

Blog Template

I have been playing with my template even more. You won't notice (unless you go to Bramage Report) because It looks the same as it does now. I am trying to upgrade to a Blogger 2 type of template and keep all the functionality I currently have. There are some major road bumps:

□ The comics will not display (except for Day by Day). The reason is the new Blogger template uses an XML parser and the JavaScript code I use to format the URL is rejected. There is no getting around this. I understand there are some workarounds but nothing quick and easy like the document.write statement I currently use. If you know of a quick way to fix it I will be very appreciative of your help.

□ Haloscan Comments. This may be a non-issue since most people have been using the Blogger comments since I turned them on. I know there is w way to get them to work with the new template. I just haven't worked out whether I want to keep them yet.

□ Testing. My HTML editor does not display the new Blogger template. So testing the code, CSS and widgets gets difficult. Fortunately I have an extra Blogger blog or two to try things out.

On the upside Blogger is very helpful with instruction on how to code in the new template.

Personal Note

I was in the hospital last Thursday for outpatient surgery. Everything went well but I won't know the results for a couple weeks. I appreciate the prayers and apologize for not posting very much during my recovery. All I have been able to do lately is sleep and play SupCom FA.

NOTE: This post was via email and for some reason between MS Outlook and Blogger the spaces between sections has grown tremendously. Another blog related item to work on.